Arcane Discourse
by ianii
Summary: Hiei, who talks too little, and Botan, who talks too much, find themselves in a somewhat philosophical conversation about the meaning of words.


**Arcane Discourse**

_"Why do we feel it's necessary to yak about bullshit in order to be comfortable? That's when you know you found somebody special. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute, and comfortably share silence." -Mia, in the movie Pulp Fiction_

_"Yeah, but sure that love existed  
Long before the first word was pronounced." -Komeda_

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Words are noises assigned to ideas.

Ideas of feelings, things, places. They are noises used to convey the understanding of something to the person next to you. They allow them to think what you are thinking.

Noises without an idea behind them are just noises.

But what if there are ideas, but no noises for those ideas? What if someone is getting your radio waves, but there is not one vibration in the air between you that can be described as 'word'?

Is it still language?

Botan decides it is.

She doesn't need words to tell her that Yusuke is passionate, loyal, and even benign.

She doesn't need words to tell her that Kurama is thoughtful and altruistic.

She doesn't need words to tell her that Kuwabara will do anything to get him or his friends out of a corner.

And she most definitely doesn't need any kind of noise to tell her that Hiei thought nothing of most people. Particularly not of her. He rarely spoke to her, after all.

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"They say action speaks louder than words."

"People say a lot of things."

Botan is silent.

Later, she will start speaking again.

"So you think anything can be described with words?"

His reply is simple, one sentence. He is in a talkative mood. "Nobody writes about what it feels like to die."

Botan wonders about that, but figures it's true. Nobody has died and lived to tell the tale.

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There are two kinds of people. Those who talk, and talk a lot and those who prefer to remain speechless.

People who are known to flap their jaws are generally thought to speak mindlessly. They are known as people who do not think or talk of important things, but it is not regarded that perhaps they _do_ think about worth-while subjects like politics, love, science, and things deemed 'intelligent' by our very own culture. Words are deceitful in that way.

The quieter population is likewise construed as certain archetypes of the great tree of generalization. There are variations, as there are with most things.

Of course, there are also those who are great judges of character out there, but they are known as 'artists' or 'authors' and such 'things' are often romantics and not to believed.

Human speech is something which comes naturally to a certain amount of people. It may or may not be found in a certain type of alleles on the chromosome, thought by most men to be an x-originated (female) gene.

Recent studies do not prove much.

In the end, it depends on the nature of that one allele in that one chromosome whether or not a person's actions or words speak louder.

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"Do you often think about what you say before you say it?"

"No."

Botan pursues an answer. "Not even a little bit? You don't care if they are hurt?"

"If they are hurt by a small sound, they deserve it." Hiei goes back to sharpening his sword, wondering how he got into a conversation like this anyway.

"But sometimes that can be more painful than a wound. If someone you love insults you, it can hurt."

"I wouldn't know."

"…There are different responses to the phrase, then."

Hiei is curious. "What phrase?"

Botan dutifully recites what she has heard from countless children. "'Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.'"

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'Cultural diffusion' is a term described as the process by which cultural traits, material objects, ideas, or behavior patterns are spread from one society to another. It is in this way that languages spread or languages are swallowed by others and die.

Latin is now considered a dead language, along with that of the ancient Egyptians and many others.

English is now one of the most spoken languages of the world and is one of only six languages spoken in the UN.

And yet, languages change from year to year so quickly it is amazing it is even possible to read old texts from older times. It is a wonder that one can read Shakespeare in a junior high school class and yet it was only four years ago that the word 'bling' was used in pop culture every other sentence.

In the eighties there were made up words such as 'tubular' and 'gnarly' (god knows where they came from). The seventies had the word 'groovy', and even earlier yet, the sixties invented many synonyms for the many varieties of drugs.

Will they teach our plays to students in a hundred more years? Probably. Will they find it hard to read? Yes.

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"Why don't you talk too much, Hiei?"

Hiei doesn't answer, and doesn't immediately grasp that he is only proving her point.

"You've gotta have at least one question."

Botan frowns.

"Ask me one. You have to want to know _something_."

Hiei is fed up with her persistence. "Why do you talk so much?" He snaps.

Botan fails to appreciate the rhetorical aspect of his question. "Wow. I think…"

She takes a few moments to put together her answer, and Hiei begins to polish the blade.

"I think it's because I really want people to hear what my opinions are. I want my conception or speculation to matter."

Hiei mumbles something that sounds suspiciously like 'don't fool yourself', but Botan can't be sure.

"Now you should answer my question."

Botan's misconception is still fresh in his mind, so his answer is immediate. "Because no one understands what I mean anyway, so why give them the satisfaction of saying it?"

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Lying is a funny thing. Someone can say anything they please, so why could they not say something that is false in reality?

I will refrain from making a whole paragraph on whether or not 'reality' is real.

Lies are, sixty percent of the time, bad things to do in the eyes of the public. Forty percent of lies are known as 'white lies' and the remaining ten percent is the all too familiar grey area.

(The numbers aren't very precise)

So when is it okay to use words that do not hold factual basis?

When is it good to tell someone something that isn't real?

Is there ever a time?

Scenarios can be made up by any person, but they rarely happen to anyone who is not in a small percentile of the world.

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"Have you ever told a lie?"

"Yes."

"Has anyone lied to you?"

Hiei fought the urge to give her a _look_. "Most of my life is a lie."

"I dunno. You're pretty cynical."

Another suspicious mumble.

Botan, by this point, is completely confident in her conversational skills and doesn't miss a beat.

"Do you hate being lied to, then?"

Hiei doesn't answer this either. Perhaps he doesn't have one.

"I think it depends on the person, don't you?" Botan doesn't expect Hiei to answer this question, either, so she continues. "For instance…"

Hiei has finished grooming his weapon, so he just sits and waits for the blue-haired girl to finish her train of thought.

"For instance, what if I told you that I didn't approve of your method of living? If I told you that I abhorred your existence, and that I wanted to kill you?"

Hiei shrugs. "I would put you on my list."

Botan doesn't have to ask what his list was.

"See?" Botan turns where she sits and smiles at him in a coy way.

"Now, what if I told you that I love you?"

Hiei's eyes go wide in unavoidable shock and he freezes, then he narrows his eyes again at the sly girl on the couch when he realizes his folly. "Don't—"

"—Don't what? Say things which aren't true?" For the sake of her point, Botan is proud enough to interrupt the man sitting three yards away with a sword in his hands. She is forgetting herself, but she is happy about it.

Hiei can do nothing but surrender to her argument. Perhaps she is brighter than he gave her credit for. (But that doesn't mean he has to like it)

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Words are full of fallacies and misconstructions, they are full of content and messages, and all at the same time, humans strive for communication whether or not it offends or if it compliments. Because they need that contact and they need to _know_.

But if there are no noises to represent the ideas, are they really there? If we stumble across these kinds of ideas, we create a noise, create a word, and it comes into existence?

But the wordless ideas are still there, and there are a few people who can apperceive them.

Botan promises Hiei as she leaves, half-turned and out the door that she'll have another conversation with him soon.

Hiei tells her from the windowsill that he'll be looking forward to it.

The room is and has been completely silent.

**End.**


End file.
